Veronika Holcová: Analysis of purgatory

Catalogue for the exhibition of the same name.

Veronika Holcova's painting and drawing work grows out of associations. The automatic start and rhythm of the chains of associations expressed by paint, drawing or the impressions of painting tools is stopped and corrected by the artist's imagery at a certain stage of its spontaneous exuberance. In each work, two distinct worlds of expression intermingle. A dynamic one formed by associations and a static one represented by figuration. Holcová's paintings, by opening up the ambiguous dimension of painterly illusion, have a subliminal effect on the viewer. The whole turns into a rippling, menacing mass whose depth dimension draws the viewer's gaze into other hidden spaces, at times dark and terrifying. The title of the exhibition, Purgatory Analysis, contains a reference to the painting Purgatory, a large-scale painting in which the painterly plane is transformed into a topography of transit between the symbolic polarities of hell and paradise. We find ourselves in a cultural and civilisational space defined by certain ethical principles whose axes symbolically and metaphorically define the limits of our perception. Trafo Gallery will present the artist's new work from 2023-24 with small additions of older works.
Curatorial collaboration.